Perspective: Dead Trees and Crumbling Buildings

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Dead Trees and Crumbling Buildings

As He came out of the temple, one of His disciples said to Him, "Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!"  Then Jesus asked him, "Do you see these great buildings?  Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down."

Mark 13:1-2 (NRSV)

Love will hold us together

Make us a shelter to weather the storm

And I'll be my brother's keeper

So the whole world would know that we're not alone

From "Hold Us Together" by Matt Maher

One day, Jesus was hungry, and, spotting a fig tree, He looked for some figs to eat.  Finding none, He cursed the tree, saying, "May no one ever eat fruit from you again."¹  The next day, Jesus and His disciples passed by the same location and saw that the same tree, which had previously just started leafing, had completely withered.  The Disciples looked at the tree in astonishment.  Jesus said to them, "Have faith in God.  Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you."²

So often, we read the Gospels as if they are blow-by-blow accounts of historical events.  It is important to realize that the Gospels are thoughtfully constructed stories.  In the Gospel written by St. Mark, we need to take notice of things that are mentioned twice - things like cursed fig trees.  Also worthy of notice are the events that are bookended by the things mentioned twice.³  Immediately after Jesus cursed the fig tree, He made His infamous demonstration at the Temple.  He turned tables over, drove people out of the Temple, blocked the door, and called the place a "den of robbers."⁴

When Jesus looked for figs to eat, He knew good and well that it wasn't the right time of year to find figs.  Jesus' deadly miracle was a highly symbolic act: the fig tree He cursed represented the religious institution of the day.  In the same way that Jesus went to the fig tree hungry but found nothing to eat, people went to the Temple physically and spiritually hungry but found no nourishment.  Furthermore, when Jesus spoke of throwing a mountain into the sea, was referring specifically to the mountain on which the Temple was built.⁵

Jesus had some harsh criticisms for the religious institution of His day, and I think that today's institutional church needs to take a good hard look at itself in light of these criticisms.

A lot of people think that the Christian religion is in dire straits nowadays, particularly in regions where it once had cultural dominance.  Christianity began as a movement, but over time it became an institution, as movements are wont to do.  The problem with institutions is that they often lose sight of their original purposes and begin to focus instead on their own self-promotion and self-preservation.  As a result, that which once worked for change becomes resistant and even hostile to change.

Church members are encouraged to reach out to other people and invite them to church, but, in many congregations, inviting people to church only becomes a priority when the congregation is in decline.  This makes me wonder why people are encouraged to invite others to church in the first place.  Is it so that the people they invite will experience the love and grace of God?  Or is it so that there will be enough money in the plate and enough people the pews to allow the church to go on doing what it has been doing?  In some situations, church members are actually called "giving units."  I wonder if the institutional church is in decline because for far too long it has focused on itself while leaving people physically and spiritually hungry, like the institutional religion of Jesus' day.

A local denominational leader once met with some members of a waning congregation to discuss what it would take to keep their church going.  At one point he said that it would be a shame to close a church with such a beautiful building.  When Jesus' disciples made a comment about beautiful buildings, Jesus said, "Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down."

At one point while the people of Israel were traveling through the wilderness, a number of people were killed by poisonous snakes.  Moses prayed to God on the people's behalf, and God instructed Moses to craft a bronze serpent.  Whenever someone was bitten by a snake, he or she would look at the bronze serpent and would be healed of the snake's venom.⁶  Centuries after the bronze serpent was created, King Hezekiah of Judah destroyed it because it had become an object of worship.⁷  This sacred object, through which God had once healed people, had lost its sacred purpose and was instead distracting people from God, so it needed to be destroyed.  It has been said that holy cows make great hamburgers.

If a congregation needs new members more than potential new members need it, then that congregation needs to either rethink its purpose or go ahead and call it a day.  We need not fear the end of sacred things that cease to serve their sacred purposes, be they sacred buildings or sacred institutions.

Perhaps the institutional church needs to focus more on loving people and focus less on making itself grow.  According to theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
Those who love their dream of a Christian community more than they love the Christian community itself become destroyers of that Christian community even though their personal intentions may be ever so honest, earnest and sacrificial...  Whoever is mindful to build the church is surely well on the way to destroying it, for he will build a temple to idols without wishing or knowing it.⁸

What often passes for evangelism is marketing at best and manipulation at worst.  When I ponder what evangelism ought to be, I think about a story of four people who have a friend who is paralyzed.  They hear that a traveling teacher and healer named Jesus is in town, so they make up their minds to do whatever it takes to get their friend to this mysterious person.  They find a stretcher and carry their friend to the house where Jesus is staying.  When they see the massive crowd of people surrounding the house, one of the friends says, "Look at that all those people!  We'll never get in there."  Another looks at the roof and says, "I have an idea."  The four climb to the roof with their friend, tear a hole in the roof, and lower their friend through the ceiling right in front of Jesus.

Jesus is clearly impressed with the four friends.  He turns to the man on the stretcher and tells him that his sins are forgiven.  When someone objects to Jesus' claim to forgive sins, he tells the paralyzed man to get up and walk.  Suddenly, no longer paralyzed, the man does exactly what Jesus has told him to do, to the amazement of the people there.⁹

St. Paul reminds us that whatever we do, if it is not done out of love, it is all for naught.¹⁰  We do not get to know people so that we can invite them to church and convert them to our religion.  We get to know people so that we can simply love them.  When we open our hearts to others and see the pain and brokenness in their lives, we can show them the love and grace of Christ - not to keep a religious establishment going but rather to be a source of light to people we love.  The four friends weren't trying to make a believer out of their friend, nor were they trying to get him to join a growing religious movement.  They had no agenda for him at all: they simply loved him and wanted him to experience healing.  Because of their efforts, the man did experience healing, both physically and spiritually.

Jesus instructed His disciples, "Proclaim the good news, 'The kingdom of heaven has come near.'  Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons."¹¹  Basically, He sent them into the world to be agents of hope and healing.  If a local church building, regardless of how beautiful it is, is not a place where people find hope and healing, then does it really matter if it ends up getting torn down?  For that matter, if the institutional church is no longer a source of hope and healing in the world, then does it really matter if it comes to an end?

I do not think that the Church is irrelevant, but I wonder if the Church is really offering people what they need.  Some people believe that the institutional church may be nearing its end, and I wonder if maybe they have a point.  Though the church as an institution may be coming to an end, I do not fear for the future of the Church as the Body of Christ.  I am confident that, as long as there is a Christ, there will be a Body to carry on the work of Christ, even if it someday looks a lot different than it does at the present moment.


Notes:

1. Mark 11:12-14 (NRSV)
2. Mark 11:20-23 (NRSV)
3. Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan.  The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus's Final Days in Jerusalem.  2006, HarperOne.  pp.32-33
4. Mark 11:15-19
5. Borg and Crossan, p.56
6. Numbers 21:4-9
7. 2 Kings 18:1-4
8. The complete quote can be found here.
9. Based on Mark 2:1-11
10. 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
11. Matthew 10:7-8 (NRSV)

The photograph of the dead tree was taken by R Neil Marshman and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.